


I Took Your Name

by Atlas_M_33



Series: The Bonds That Tie [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Galaxy Garrison, I make them happy before I make them sad again, M/M, Nicknames, Pre-Kerberos Mission, This was supposed to be pure fluff, Those who comment are rewarded, but my brain said no
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2018-12-31 17:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12137046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atlas_M_33/pseuds/Atlas_M_33
Summary: "You never did tell me why you call me flyboy.""…What?"~~~A few months after Shiro and Keith get together they have a conversation about names.





	I Took Your Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tragedy_machine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tragedy_machine/gifts).



> Dedicated to tragedy_machine, whose comment on the first fic in this series inspired me to put some more thought into what I wanted to convey with this story, and made me want to share that with other people. 
> 
> This one's for you mate.

"You know," Keith shifts his position on the bed, leaning back against the wall, legs stretching far enough into Shiro's space that he has an excuse to kick them up into his lap. "You never did tell me why you call me flyboy."

Shiro shifts his attention from the forms he's filling out on his tablet to his boyfriend, dropping a hand to Keith's shin and rubbing his thumb over his knee. "…What?"

Keith's expression turns fond in a way that has warmth curling in Shiro's chest, something that's been happening constantly since they started dating months ago. Keith shakes his head slightly, smile firmly locked in place, and elaborates. "When we met you started calling me flyboy almost right away. Why?" He tilts his head to the side just a bit, causing his hair to shift and fall into his eyes. Shiro has to take a moment to catch his breath before he can even consider the question. 

"Well," He pauses, gathering thoughts and dropping himself into the memory of the day they'd met, when he'd first approached the cadet that always ate by himself. The one that attended class by himself and flew by himself and worked out by himself. The one that was always, somehow, alone in the middle of crowded rooms. Shiro blinks and he's back in the present, sitting on his bed with documents only half complete and Keith's legs across his lap. "You'd just called me spaceman."

Keith scoffs, pulling his leg back to nudge Shiro with his foot before settling back into place. "Yeah. But you'd just come up to my table, dumped a bunch of astronomy books on it, and then introduced yourself. You're the biggest space nerd at the Garrison and everyone knows it."

"Am not!" There's no point in protesting though, because Keith only has to give the glow in the dark stars on Shiro's ceiling a pointed look to win this argument.  
Shiro huffs even as a smile stretches across his face. "Whatever."

"So?" Keith is back to poking Shiro with his foot, pulling back sharply whenever he thinks Shiro is going to make a grab for him. 

"So what?" He does finally manage to catch Keith by the ankle, only for Keith to pull straight out of his grip, leaving Shiro clutching a black athletic sock and gaping at his smug boyfriend. 

"So why flyboy?" Keith snatches back the sock and quickly replaces it. He's always hated how cold Shiro keeps it in here. 

"Oh. I guess…" He looks at Keith, sprawled out and relaxed, doing nothing even though Shiro knows he has at least two assignments due tomorrow. "After you introduced yourself I brought up how you had beaten my sim score, remember?" At Keith's nod he continues. "And for a second you looked like you thought I was gonna beat you up, but then you just… you lit up. Like talking about flying was the best thing you'd ever done. And when you called me spaceman you still had that look on your face, so it just kind of. Slipped out."

Keith stares at him for a moment before the grin Shiro was just talking about spreads across his face, exactly the way it had the day they met. "You're a sap."

Shiro jerks, raising a hand to his chest and assuming a mock-offended tone. "Me? Never."

Keith still has that affectionate gleam in his eye, even as he snorts at Shiro's antics. "Yup. Too late to take it back now." His laughter becomes a shriek when Shiro latches a hand behind his knee, pulling him in close enough to dig his fingers into Keith's ribs. Keith barely manages to gasp out a breathless and slightly betrayed "No tickling!" before dissolving into a fit. 

Shiro's victory is short lived though, as his victim manages to flip around enough to stick his own fingers into the ticklish spot behind Shiro's knee. He relinquishes his hold on Keith with a wheeze, slumping down onto the bed. For moment they lay there side by side, sprawled out and breathless and smiling. Keith leans in, rubs their noses together the way he does after their sparring matches. 

Shiro knows he'd be willing to stay here like this all day, so even though he huffs it's probably a good thing when his tablet rings out a notification. He reaches down to snag it off the floor where it fell and opens the message as Keith pulls himself up to finally get started on that homework. "Who is it?"

The question is muffled by the pen between Keith's teeth as he fumbles the books he's holding in an attempt to make them easier to carry. His hair is messy and he already has an ink smear on his cheek. Shiro can feel his face heating up. He looks back to his tablet. "The kid I'm tutoring. He's got a question about flight theory."

"The cargo pilot?" Keith pokes his head over Shiro's shoulder, scanning the problem and reaching down to type in a quick response. He waits for Shiro to nod before retreating to the end of the bed again as Shiro hits send. 

They work in silence for a while, settled in each other's presence enough that the lack of conversation is soothing instead of awkward. Shiro's just proofreading the final page of the document when Keith closes up his books and speaks again. "How's it coming?"

"I'm almost finished. Working on the last page." Keith scoots closer as Shiro selects and retypes an oddly worded sentence, reading over his shoulder and nodding his approval of the revision before rocking back to look at Shiro.

"Are you nervous?" The question isn't rough or patronizing the way it is when the professors ask, but it definitely isn't soft. It's Keith own version of sensitive, the way he only is with Shiro, prompting him into a conversation he doesn't want to start but that he knows he needs to have. 

"Kind of." Shiro stares down at the tablet without really seeing it, lost in some middle space until the screen times out and his reflection startles him back into the present. "I know I'm a good pilot, but I don't have the real world experience. There are a lot of people that would be better suited to an extra-atmospheric mission." He looks up, and Keith meets his eyes easily, the way he always does. 

"You're not just good though Shiro. You're the best, and everybody knows that about you too." He lifts his hand to run it through Shiro's hair, pushing it back from his face and tipping forward to bump their foreheads together before he leans back again to make sure Shiro pays attention to his next words. 

"Stop worrying. They'll give you a mission. They'd be idiots not to." A little smirk finds it's way into Keith's face. "And when they do you'll be a real spaceman." Shiro grins, the same warmth from earlier flaring in his chest at Keith's confidence in him. He chuckles. 

"Let's hope so."

He clicks the submit button on his mission application. Then he puts down his tablet and turns to Keith, taking his face in his hands and kissing him. 

As an un-graduated cadet there's no way he'll be chosen to pilot something as important as the Kerberos mission. No. One of the more prestigious pilots, one with a few successes already under their belt, will be chosen to fly the first manned mission to the edge of the solar system. But, as Keith pointed out when he started the form, his ambition will look good to the senior officers and it might get him a more minor mission. Maybe one to one of Jupiter's moons. 

Until then though, Shiro has all the time in the world to spend with Keith. He pushes in even closer, settling into the gravity of their binary star system. 

On second thought, all the time in the world wouldn't be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I got about halfway through writing this and my brain said "Hey, you know what would be evil?" So that's how this fluff piece got its healthy dose of foreshadowing. 
> 
> Anyway, y'all are so great, and this was actually gonna be the last piece of this verse, but then someone left a comment on part two that sent me scrambling to fill a request for a part of the story I hadn't even considered exploring! So, remember that I read and cry over ALL my comments and stay tuned for part four!


End file.
